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I must have really under priced the one I sold recently for 35quid.

On roads like those you didn't carry just one spare.

As far as I know, the Lastochka and the Orlenok were both made in two factories, one in (as you say, Belarus) and the other in Lithuania. According to legend or rumour (more like) they were vaguely based on Schwinn cruisers seen being used by children on American bases in West Germany after WW2.

That's in remarkably good condition - the paint in my mind is too good to be original and the chainset looks far too modern for Soviet-era production. Along with copying Mafac brakes, for some reason the Soviets tended to use French pedal threads on the chain sets and pedal they manufactured. It...

It's a KhVZ (Kharkov Bicycle Plant) - head badge looks like XB3 to the eyes of english speakers. No idea what the real model designation was but it and similar bikes were known as "Старт-Шоссе" (pronounced "Start-Shosse") meaning that they were a sort of introductory racing bike - a sort of...

See?

There is a pair of sprint carriers on the desk beside me as I write this. Metallic blue anodised alloy too.

For anything other than racing we used to use glue that remained slightly tacky and usually carried a used tub as a spare which would have similar tacky traces of glue on the base tape so the spare would grip pretty well on a rim when needed. You had to remember not to brake heavily or throw the...

If you've never used tubs before and decide to go that route, dry mount the tubs and keep them inflated for a week or so to stretch them before fixing them to the rims when you do fix them use the tub tape. There's something of a technique required to mount a tub and even if you know it the...

IMO, hands down in all three categories - Zeus.

As a concession to age (pushing 67) and neck ache I recently raised the bars on my Master by 5mm. Such a subtle change to the bike (especially with a proper stem) that if I hadn't done it myself I'd be thinking that the ache had just gone away by itself.

The answer would be "no" or at best "not until you've got rid of the ones you're supposed to be selling".

I have to admit to being tempted by this beauty, it's only the fact that it's maybe a cm small and the realistic chance of being strangled by my other half if I brought another bike home that stays my hand.

If the current blocks are old just fitting new ones will make a hell of a difference as I found out when I started riding my lockdown project. Similar calipers, similar rims, same design blocks from the same manufacturer but some 20 years newer than the ones on my little used other bike. As soon...

If anything gets through the corrosion it'll be Bilt Hamber Deox-C. It might take a few days but I've know it wick it's way under powder coat. The problem would be finding some sort of container of a suitable size and shape that wouldn't mean using several gallons of the stuff just to be able to...

If you've got access to a chest freezer put the frame in there for a couple of days then pour hot water over the BB shell. With luck the expansion of the steel will break any corrosion between the BB unit and the shell. If no chest freezer you could try some plumbing freeze spray.

I'd go with that, the forks look like Far Eastern Tange-type generic replacements. I wouldn't necessarily expect bottle bosses on a frame of that era, especially when there don't appear to be any cable stops or guides on the top tube.

Basically, it's a badge engineered Raleigh so a lot of the parts (especially the Sturmey rear hub will have month/year manufacture date stamps

Not C-record, it's the original 1970s Record (except for the front mech which is looks to be much later and probably a Chorus). The brakes look to be Universal Super 68 with drillium levers.

I'd say mid-80s. The 54 on the BB is most likely the size whilst 48 is most probably the builder id which often has a couple of letters too. Usual tubing for such a frame from that era was either SL or SLX.